


Witching Hour

by MonitorofNothing



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 13:40:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28546494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MonitorofNothing/pseuds/MonitorofNothing
Summary: Dimity and Julie get through the s4 finale and come to a new understanding.
Relationships: Ada Cackle/Hecate Hardbroom, Dimity Drill/Julie Hubble
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18





	Witching Hour

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Cass for taking a look at this and correcting all the formatting errors that turn up when I'm dictating <3

Dimity was over Julie Hubble. Absolutely and completely.

True, they had been close as colleagues, spent several evenings curled up watching films together on the laptop Julie had smuggled past HB in a box of art supplies. The last time, Julie had even dozed off with her head resting against Dimity's arm, and Dimity had been strongly tempted to wake her with a kiss. Then the stolen magic took over and the fledgling relationship petered out. Julie had left the Academy without even saying goodbye, and though she was very apologetic at Gwen's wedding, it all felt awkward and embarrassing. They hadn't seen each other since. She'd been so consumed this past year with the resurgence of both her old injury and the nemesis who had caused it that any remaining feelings for Julie had been shoved unceremoniously aside. 

So there was really no excuse for the way her stomach flipped when Julie strode in out of the blue on the last day of term, and flipped again when she scowled and snapped at her. Dimity supposed she deserved that. She ought to have made more of an effort to get Mildred back from Wormwood's. But she had been numb with shock after watching the destruction of Miss Cackle, and so focused on trying to keep HB from shattering almost as badly that she'd hardly had a moment to turn her mind to it.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, holding out her copy of the Witches' Code for Julie to share as everybody readied themselves to say the Promise. "I'll explain later. There's been a lot going on."

Julie was still frowning as she grudgingly leaned in to read from the book, and all at once Dimity longed to make her smile.

_ I swear to do my witching duty, By Witches' Code I shall abide,  _ everybody chanted.  _ And with these words I read unthinking... _

... _ This isn't right, _ Dimity thought, her mind stumbling against the suddenly unfamiliar lines, and then, with dawning horror as the words marched on regardless,  _ Why can't I stop? _

_ … To vanishment I go with pride. _

And they all whirled away into the dark.

Changing the words of the Promise to send the whole school into vanishment. This must be Ethel Hallow's idea of a joke. Some Head Girl she would be. The landing had jarred Dimity's back. She'd forgotten to take her last meds, what with everything going on, and her magical muscle was already beginning to spasm. All around her, girls were coughing from the dust. She heard Julie call out in fear from somewhere nearby.

"Ms Hubble? Over here!" Dimity felt an odd sense of relief that Julie was here too. She ignored it and tried to take charge. "Don't worry, girls. I don't know what's gone wrong but Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom will get us out."

"I don't think that was really Miss Cackle," said Julie darkly, "It must have been the other one, whatshername, the evil twin..."

_ "Agatha?  _ But she's imprisoned!"

"She's escaped," said Felicity Foxglove in a small voice. "Ethel let her out."

Dimity set her jaw. "Of course she did."

If Agatha was free she would have made certain to neutralise HB so there would be no help from that quarter. Dimity racked her brain, wishing she'd paid more attention to theoretical magic, trying desperately to recall any possible way of sending an SOS from within vanishment, or whether there might be a safeguard keeping the whole place from recycling when there were people inside. 

She was drawing a complete blank. There were the girls, all looking at her expectantly, waiting to be told what to do, because she was somehow the only member of staff left.

The younger girls in particular often brought their problems to Dimity, cautious of the headmistress's authority and her deputy's temper. Miss Drill was approachable, and she did her best to send them on their way feeling better about life. This was no mere lost cat or childish argument, though. The only answer Dimity had for them today was a bleak one.

But here was Julie Hubble, used to getting by without magic, taking all this in her stride. In no time at all she was organising the girls into building a tower of abandoned furniture to reach a vanishment hole Beatrice had spotted high above them.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Dimity found herself stifling a smile. They might be approaching the witching hour, but witching wasn't always the answer. Sometimes practicality and creativity could be more important than magic, and it wouldn't hurt any of them to remember that more often. She let her fingers trail over the moth-eaten cover of a large winged armchair, thinking briefly and wistfully of how she could have hoisted it over her shoulders this time last year. Her magical muscle injury had been slowly improving over the past few months but she'd learned the hard way to be realistic about what was achievable.

"Miss Drill, I'm not sure you should-" Julie began, eyeing her walking stick, but Dimity had already lowered herself into the chair.

"I shouldn't," she confirmed. "But I can direct operations very nicely from here."

Julie gave her a quick smile before disappearing to give the third years a hand.

"Lift safely, girls!" Dimity called as they all got to work. "Take the weight on your legs and not your backs. First years, stop trying to shift that wardrobe, it's too heavy for you. Let the older girls take it and go and fetch some of those desks."

"Left a bit, Sybil," she heard Julie saying from the other side of the pile. "That's it. Clarice, let's stick this old spell book under your wobbly table leg before Beatrice piles anything else on top."

It felt good to be working together again, even under so much pressure. Dimity hadn't realised how much she'd missed having Julie around.

When the tower reached most of the way to the opening, Julie came and perched on the arm of Dimity's chair.

"Are you going to manage to climb this?" she asked in a low voice

Dimity smiled grimly. "Given the alternative, I think the answer has to be yes. You start getting the girls out and I'll follow on in my own time."

_ You won't have much time,  _ said Julie's eyes, but aloud she only said "Sounds like a plan."

Dimity was grateful that she wasn't making a fuss. "Can you take my stick up?" she asked. "I'll need both hands free."

"Of course." Julie's fingers brushed against hers as she took it, and Dimity had to suppress the urge to hold onto them.

The girls were already setting the last few chairs in place. It was ten minutes to midnight. Julie gave Dimity an encouraging nod and climbed back to the top before posting Izzy Jones neatly up through the hole in the ceiling.

Dimity's back was on fire by the time she made it to the top, just as the last girl was pulled to safety.

"Alright?" Julie asked, with a searching look. Dimity nodded, too breathless to speak. "Good. Our turn then. Do you need a moment's rest?" Dimity shook her head and tapped her watch. A chill wind had sprung up from somewhere, blowing in dizzying circles around them, sending some of the lighter debris flying past their faces.

"You first," said Julie. She gripped Dimity around the hips before she could argue and lifted her up. Willing hands reached through the hole and pulled her onto the kitchen floor. She dropped onto her stomach, ignoring the pain and scooted forward to reach her hand down to Julie. 

She was too far away.

"Miss Drill, you can use magic now you're up here," said Mabel urgently. "Transfer her out." 

But Dimity couldn't. Her magical muscle was one big pulsing ball of pain and she couldn't begin to think how to cast the simplest spell, let alone transferring somebody else. It would be beyond any of the girls, she knew. She would just have to stretch a little further.

Their fingers touched, slipped and then touched again as vanishment began to rearrange itself into a swirling vortex.

"Come on Julie!" she called, trying to sound more encouraging than desperate. 

Julie made one last effort before the chair wobbled beneath her and the tower started to collapse. Dimity lunged for her magic again, the pain of it searing right up her spine. The last thing she saw before she fainted was Julie's terrified face falling away from her.

~*~

She awoke to find herself still on the floor, lying on her back with the figure of Miss Cackle looming over her. Dimity tensed, ready to fight, the movement sending jagged pains shooting everywhere.

"It's alright Dimity, it's really me this time."

Miss Cackle's face seemed soft and kind, but so it had just before everyone vanished. Unsure, Dimity managed to focus on HB, standing half an inch behind. HB nodded in confirmation, her eyes still shining with the relief of it. Dimity relaxed and let her gaze wander to Ada's other side.

_ "Julie!  _ But how? I saw you fall!"

"I'm fine. Let Miss Cackle see to you first." 

Ada looked even worse than Dimity felt but she managed a restoring spell strong enough to get her back up on her feet. Dimity staggered and Julie's arm was around her in an instant. She clung gratefully to it until the kitchen stopped spinning around her, and then held on for a little while longer, even after Mildred had handed back her walking stick, because she couldn't quite process that Julie was safe, that everybody was safe now. She shook her head, trying to keep up as the girls breathlessly regaled her with the tale of last-minute rescue and the defeat of their enemy.

HB, after a shrewd glance, sent Maud to the lab for a pain killing potion. It was unusual for her to let any girl access her storeroom unsupervised, but it was quite plain that she wasn't prepared to let Ada out of her sight for a single moment.

"It won't be full potency," HB admitted, uncorking the bottle and passing it over. "It needs a spell for that, and I can't work magic until this abomination is destroyed." She shuddered, waving towards the enormous brooch on her chest and Dimity wondered why she'd believed Ada would ever have given her something so ugly.

"Agatha connected the brooch to Miss Cackle," Mildred explained, seeing her mother's confusion. "If Miss Hardbroom tries to use magic it might still hurt her."

Dimity swallowed the potion and wished with all her heart she could have a brainwave that would solve the problem, mostly so they could all relax and get some sleep, although she couldn't deny there was also a desire to show off in front of Julie Hubble. Saving HB might have made up for the indignity of being found sprawled unconscious on the kitchen floor. But her spell science had never been particularly strong. It was the headmistress who was the expert in that department.

"I'm trying, Hecate," Ada said, passing a hand across her eyes. "But I've never seen a spell quite like this, and I'm not exactly working at full capacity just now..."

Julie was looking at HB with her head on one side. "Why don't you just take your clothes off?"

HB went rigid. "I  _ beg _ your pardon?"

"Honestly, you witches." Julie rolled her eyes. "You're so caught up in all your hocus pocus that you never spare any time for plain common sense."

"She's right, you know," said Dimity, trying not to laugh. "Things don't always have to be complicated." She was doing her best to focus on the situation in hand without getting too distracted by the thought of Julie saying  _ Just take your clothes off _ under rather different circumstances.

Ada's eyes lit up. "I think Ms Hubble might be onto something! Did you attach the brooch yourself, dear?"

"Yes, I…" HB looked as though she were struggling to catch on. She rubbed a fold of her sleeve uncertainly between forefinger and thumb. "Do you really think the charm will break if I just take this off?"

"Not the main spell. But I think the connection, if Agatha wasn't the one to pin it on. Shall we go and find out?" Ada took her wife's hand and led her towards the stairs.

"...Do you think it worked?" asked Julie, after she had kissed Mildred and sent her yawning to bed with Tabby purring sleepily in her arms.

"Probably. Either way, I don't think we'll see them again tonight. They always hibernate for a while once they've made sure we're all safe. And they've been through a lot this time." 

"They really have. I'm sorry I lashed out at you before. I didn't realise how bad things were here."

"It's ok," Dimity said. "You had every right to be angry. HB was out of line sending Mildred away. But she always goes a bit loopy if anything threatens Miss Cackle, and this was… oh gods, Julie, it was awful. I've never seen anything like it." 

She shuddered, not feeling like going into any further detail just now. Julie's face was so full of sympathy that Dimity felt she might cry, and she worried that if she started she wouldn't stop.

She turned her attention back to her body instead. The potion was seeping into her system already, dulling the pain. Not as much as she'd hoped, but enough to let her feel her magic again. Dimity stretched and rubbed her back, wincing.

"How's it feeling?" Julie asked.

"Better than it was. Hopefully HB can give me some full strength stuff tomorrow."

"I was wondering…" said Julie, and then she didn't say anything more.

"Yes?"

"Um, how would you feel about me giving you a massage?"

Dimity wasn't sure she had heard correctly. This must be one of those hallucinations Ada had warned her about.

Julie bit her lip. "Look, I won't pretend to understand how any of this works. I just thought if my non magical hugs can melt magical ice maybe there's something I can do for a magical injury? You never know."

"Worth a try, I suppose," said Dimity, attempting to keep her voice steady.

"Right." Instead of moving behind her or asking Dimity to turn Julie stepped forward and slipped her arms around Dimity's waist. Gentle fingers began to explore the injury through her clothes tentative at first but becoming more confident as Dimity leaned against her with a sigh. "How's this?"

Dimity made a noise that she hoped conveyed a sort of neutral gratitude. The pain was beginning to recede a little more, although she couldn't tell whether it were really the massage or just the fact that Julie's proximity was flooding her body with all sorts of competing sensations. She let Julie's hair tickle her cheek and breathed in her perfume as her fingers pressed and kneaded.  _ I could just ask her not to let go,  _ Dimity thought hazily. _ It could be as simple as that. _

She really did want to ask Julie to stay around, she realised. But not tonight. Julie deserved to be properly courted, not clutched at and begged in the aftermath of a near-death experience. Dimity wanted to swoop down out of the sky on a racing broom, shower her with flowers, take her somewhere spectacular. All that would have to wait.

"I think that's all I can manage for now," Julie said after a while, pulling away and flexing her fingers, "But I can have another go tomorrow when I come back for this Head Girl ceremony if you really think it helps?"

Dimity nodded. "I think it does."

"Great." Julie beamed at her. Then her face changed and she began rummaging for her phone. "That reminds me…"

Dimity watched her focus shift as she began to type, and felt a pang of loss at no longer being the centre of Julie's attention. "Who are you messaging?" she asked, before she could stop herself.

"Mildred's dad," Julie murmured abstractedly, finger still dancing across the screen. "I expect he'd like to be here tomorrow, if he can."

"Mildred's- I thought you weren't...?"

"We're back in touch," said Julie, stuffing the phone back into her pocket. She smiled. "Turns out Izzy Jones is Millie's little sister! Of all the ways to find him again I never would have thought it would be through this place."

_ Izzy doesn't have a mum,  _ Dimity remembered. "...Oh." She found herself needing to lean more heavily on her stick. "That's-"  _ The end of all my stupid daydreams.  _ "That's nice. I'm sure you'll make a lovely family." Dimity suddenly felt terribly tired. She turned and made her way unsteadily towards the door.

Hurried footsteps rang out behind her and she felt the air move past her shoulders as though someone had reached out to take hold of them and then thought better of it.

"It's not like that," Julie said quietly.

Dimity took her time turning around, not wanting Julie to see her face until she had it more under control. She didn't say anything.

"It's not like that," Julie repeated. "He's a lovely fella, and we had fun in Morocco. But it was only a fling. We've both grown up a lot since then. We're not about to sit down and start playing happy families just because our kids go to the same school."

Dimity leaned against the wall and let her breath out. "So you're not getting back together?"

"No," said Julie. "I'm happy for him to spend time with Millie if that's what she wants. It's completely up to her. But I'm not planning to settle down with someone I dated for three weeks, fifteen years ago. And anyway, I don't need a man in my life."

Dimity meant to say something bland and harmless in agreement but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was "...How about a woman?"

Julie's eyes widened a fraction before looking away and Dimity thought she'd pushed too far.

But there was a shy little smile hovering around Julie's lips as she looked back up, and she had gone rather pink. "Well. Yes. That wouldn't be so bad." 

Her hand went to her mouth and for a giddy moment Dimity thought she was about to blow her a kiss. But she was only covering a tremendous yawn. Dimity found herself yawning in sympathy and they both laughed.

Julie rested her hand on Dimity's for a moment. "I should be getting home," she murmured. "It's ever so late. ...I don't suppose you could manage one of those transfer thingies, could you? Now you're feeling a bit better? I don't really fancy plodding all the way back down the mountain at this time of night."

Dimity hesitated, assessing the amount of magic at her command.

"It's fine if you can't," Julie added quickly. "Don't wear yourself out. I can try and get a taxi or something."

"Of course I can." Dimity's injury protested violently as she gathered her magic, and she knew it would leave her completely drained. But that was a small price to pay for the grateful admiration in Julie's eyes and the quick kiss she left on Dimity's cheek just before the magic encircled her.

"See you tomorrow," Julie whispered as she disappeared.

Her promise and her smile seemed to shimmer in the air after she had gone, and Dimity's cheek still burned from the touch of her lips. She took a firmer grip on her stick, reached out her free hand to the banister and began the long, exhausting trek upstairs to her own bed. She found herself grinning as the words she'd said to HB earlier came back into her mind.

_ Things don't always have to be complicated. _

**Author's Note:**

> I know that's not the most efficient way to give somebody a back massage but forgive me for the feels.
> 
> This is quite similar in some ways to Emiline's sweet fic Clarifying Intentions. Mine was drafted out about a week before theirs was posted, so clearly great minds were thinking alike at the same time, even if it took me forever to finish mine!


End file.
